Grundfos system delivers leakage reductions

With global demand for clean and safe drinking water continuing to grow, one of the obstacles to meeting this remains leakage. Ageing networks cannot be easily replaced, but a problem that for example leaves London losing 1,000 million litres of clean water every day, and produces worldwide losses equating to the needs of 200 million people, is one that demands a solution. Grundfos Pumps have stepped up to the challenge and can demonstrate a practical solution that works.

Called Grundfos Demand Driven Distribution (DDD), this solution uses pressure control to match pumping against demand. The unique MPC controller in the Grundfos DDD system is programmed to automatically adapt the degree of pumping to match the actual demand, maintaining a proportional pressure and typically reducing leakage by 10-20%, though savings of as much as 80% have been seen in one example.

In addition to the immediate benefits of reduced leakage and energy use, the multi pump control and proportionate pressure functionality in the Grundfos DDD system also bring long-term savings by dramatically lowering the risk of “water hammer”, one of the primary causes of pipework weakness.

Though in many cases recent advances in pump technology will mean updating older pumps with high efficiency ones can be justified with a 2-3 year payback, the Grundfos DDD system is designed to also work with all types of existing pumps. This enables practical, phased introduction and easy integration of both current and new installations.

Click here to find out more about projects that have benefitted as well as to calculate what your savings might be.